Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday announced the appointment of New Party member and sociology professor Timothy Ting (丁庭宇) as third Taipei deputy mayor and said he expected Ting to help with policymaking in educational, cultural and social welfare fields.
The appointment of Ting, 57, comes after Hau’s previous choice, former Taipei City secretary-general Yang Hsi-an (楊錫安), declined to take up the post because of the controversy surrounding his possible link to the Xinsheng Overpass scandal.
Yang is alleged to have abused his powers during the April 2008 bidding process for reconstruction of a portion of the Xinsheng Overpass. It was later determined that the city paid far more than it should have for the project.
Photo: Chen Ching-min, Taipei Times
Taipei prosecutors filed charges against Yang last year and he was removed from his secretary-general post.
Yang’s decision to decline the appointment on Aug 1 came as a surprise because Hau had repeatedly defended the appointment and his belief in Yang’s innocence.
Introducing Ting to the press at his office, Hau described him as an old friend who had been one of his personal advisers when he was first elected as a legislator and who had participated in the planning of municipal policies. These included the Tamsui River cleanup project and direct flights between Songshan Airport in Taipei and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport.
“More importantly, Mr Ting is expert on polling and he can help our team have a better understanding of public opinions, so that municipal policies will meet the expectations of Taipei residents,” Hau said.
Ting has also worked as a political commentator and once served as an adviser to Gallup Market Research Corp in Taiwan.
Ting said Hau had offered him the job on Monday and he was confident he could immediately start helping the mayor with municipal affairs.
“I was surprised and flattered by Mayor Hau’s invitation ... This position is more challenging than my previous jobs as a professor and an advisor to Gallup, and I am confident that I do the job well,” he said.
Ting will formally assume office as third Taipei deputy mayor on Tuesday.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS